


Just Bodie

by The Hag (hagsrus)



Category: The Professionals
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 14:38:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/504564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hagsrus/pseuds/The%20Hag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the teaandswissroll obbo #159, prompt "elastic"</p>
<p>September 2012</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Bodie

Bodie made a futile grab through the open window and watched his quarry's lightning-quick retreat. "Bit of elastic and a forked twig and that squirrel would never molest your window box again," he declared. "I could stake it out from the street and --"

"You'd break the window," said Doyle. "Just William at heart, aren't you?"

"What?"

"William Brown, you know, Just William. Didn't you ever read the books?"

"All right for him. People called him his proper name." Bodie slumped down on the sofa beside Doyle.

"Didn't they call you?"

Bodie's face closed.

Doyle said: "You don't have to tell me."

Code. Their cautious ongoing approach to intimacy. Confidences volunteered: "I'll tell you something." Questions tentatively asked: "You don't have to tell me." He touched Bodie's hand reassuringly.

After a moment Bodie shrugged and relaxed. "Daft, really. The way those things are. At school, you know. When I'd just started. One of the bigger boys--he lived a few doors along from us--said: 'Well, here's little Willy.' And then it was all willy jokes and I was the target for the bullies."

"Until?" Doyle prompted.

Bodie uttered a brief laugh. "Yeah. After about a week I kicked him in the shin and said my name was Bodie and there was a hell of a fight and I managed to hit him in the mouth with my head and knocked one of his teeth out."

"That's my Bodie!"

"Then one of the others said he didn't ought to be picking on a kid smaller than him anyway and the tide sort of turned in my favour. I said again my name was Bodie and that was it. Except my mum went spare when I got home with a black eye and my nose bloody. Good thing it happened after school. Anyway, after that, anyone outside the family, I said my name was Bodie and wouldn't tell them anything else. Got to be a habit."

"Me it was the curls, and I was a bit of a runt then. Birthday being late summer most of the class was that much bigger. My brother saw what was happening and gave me a crash course in dirty fighting. Got to be fast and crazy, he said, so I started hitting first. And biting," he added reminiscently. "Got in a lot of trouble but it worked."

"The teachers and my mum said fighting never solved anything, but she was wrong. They all were. If you can win it solves everything."

And now we fight for those who can't, Doyle thought. "Doesn't always have to be physical, though," he said. "Clever bloke like Cowley -- "

"I'm better at physical. Going to try the catapult one day, too."

"That's you, Just Bodie." He ran his hand along Bodie's thigh. "Nothing little about your willy these days," he said. "Fancy giving it an airing? Not due at work for another hour. Take your mind off the squirrel."

"What squirrel?"

"Just my Bodie," Doyle said as Bodie enveloped him, and then his mouth was silenced.

 

[For those unacquainted with Just William see here: http://just-william.net and don't miss his slightly disguised role as Adam Young, the Antichrist, in Good Omens.]


End file.
